A streetside glimpse of India from Bangalore - no paid news, no lobbying, no plants, no stringing along - just pure viewpoints. My own political education. Satire Alert (At times)!
Because, nothing is permanent, only interim!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Each
time I visit Mumbai – I realize that the public transport scene has not
changed in the last 12 odd years. By much. Mumbai incidentally was the
first to introduce Air Conditioned buses – as early as the late 90s. But
over the years, they have somehow not been able to crack the market for
taking public transport upmarket. Unless you count Cool cabs. The
trains have been a pain – each passing day it becomes more and more
difficult to squeeze in. The buses – once the pride of India – are no
longer as good - and thats a pity. I mean, BEST is a good service but it has not kept pace
with the times.

This, despite the fact that the Mumbai mentality is a very public transport friendly one. Unless
you are some super elite – you would have used public transport at many points in your life. I would
think about 99% of Mumbai was used to public transport. Public
transport (and I include autos, taxis here) was cheap, reliable and
plentiful.Why I say this is because of the city we are comparing with.

Cut
to Bangalore. 12 years ago, I was stranded at some place (the center of the city) looking at a
bus to go to some other place (less than 10 kms away) at the unearthly hour of 730 pm. No
buses. And BMTC well, was a
lumbering sleeply bus company. As it is, those blue dabbas were generally slow, overcrowded and
unpredictable. The people of Bangalore avoided getting into these buses
unless they had a choice. Autos were (and continue to be) bad and
unfriendly. There was no cab service worth its name.

And then R Ashoka happened. As did a few other things.That changed the face of both BMTC and KSRTC.

If
you visited Mumbai in 2000 and 2012 – you will see a huge increase in
vehicles on roads – a lot of those who used to use public transport
shifted to using their own vehicles. The overall road scenario has
improved, but public transport has not kept pace with demand. But
someone who comes to Bangalore after 12 years will not recognize the
city. At peak hours, BMTC floods the roads with its beautiful big red
bus – the pride of its roads - the Volvos. And there is a bus every few minutes on the E-city, ITPL and Ring Road corridors - the big traffic corridors. And almost every
bus is full. These buses are airconditioned and charge a premium for
their ride (overall, public transport is more expensive than Mumbai). But they are fast, comfortable and plentiful. The last two
points are usually the big reason people don’t want to dump their
vehicles - you crack it and you get people off their high horses. The number of Volvos in Bangalore is perhaps higher than any
city in the country.

And I believe this is where Mumbai – missed the
bus. AC services are few and far in between. And waiting for them just
isn’t worth it. With the creaky train infrastructure which will remain
that way until the Metro comes up – the BEST had a golden opportunity of
going upmarket with AC buses and the like. Bangalore has successfully
transitioned many users from bikes and cars to buses – simply by making
its service more reliable, comfortable and plentiful.

Mumbai can still do it - the traffic jams in the city are just too unbearble and the city can pay as much, if not more than Bangalore. A bus corridor is perhaps all it takes. But thats for the city planners to decide.

Bangalore
had quite a few things against it. A general public transport
unfriendly populace. Bad roads. And a circular city. But BMTC has
managed to convert each of these – and some of the recent road widening
exercises have come in handy – into a winner for its bus service.

Apart
from these – the cab scene in Bangalore is pretty good. Rickshaws are
painful (though as compared to Delhi or Chennai they rock – as compared
to Mumbai they suck). And the airport buses, well, they are a breeze...